Uncle George
by SomeoneElse16
Summary: Rose wonders why her Uncle George acts so differently from the rest of the family, never getting into the yelling matches that are so commonplace.


Uncle George

Rose Weasley prided herself on her uncanny ability to tell what others were thinking and feeling. She could tell when her brother was jealous about a toy Cousin Al had, she knew when Cousin James had teased Cousin Lily one time too many, and she knew how upset Aunt Ginny was after James finally left for school, despite her valiant attempts to hide it. The most common instances, however, involved gratuitous amounts of shouting and no skill at all to recognize. Even her brother noticed when Uncle Percy stormed out of a family gathering early, no doubt prompted by something her Dad had said. (It was probably about cauldron bottoms. For some reason, Uncle Percy was unusually sensitive about cauldron bottoms.) Her Dad then said loudly something she didn't understand, (which Mum scolded him for) and did his familial duty and retrieved him, presumably after mutual apologies.

Other times a friendly debate would spiral down into a yelling match. Aunt Fleur mentioned something about Cousin Lily playing in the garden with the boys, and Aunt Ginny responded politely with a remark about Victoire's third boyfriend since Christmas, and before either of their husbands could stop them, they were yelling at each other about proper parenting. Grandma Molly had to shout at the top of her lungs to get them to stop. When they finally did, they leaned back into their respective husbands before muttering an apology to each other.

Yes, people in her rather large family fought loudly and often, and she could usually tell what the fight was about, and who it had started it. She was also quite adept at guessing how long the altercation would go before someone apologized, and who would do the apologizing. Because there always was one. People in her family fought and made up, almost as a game, it appeared to her. The only one who never participated was Uncle George.

This was odd, because his daughters Fred and Roxanne were some of the worst, and since the only thing that riled Aunt Angela was insulting her Quidditch team, they simply _had _to have inherited it from their father. Rose wondered if the Weasely argumentative gene had somehow skipped a generation, because those Weasleys were the worst. (She knew; she lived with them. She _was_ one.) She didn't really believe that this was the case, however, because that particular gene was incredibly potent.

As soon as young Rose noticed this inexplicable break in the pattern, she started watching Uncle George like a hawk. She was smart; she knew that there was something off about her Uncle George. People in her family didn't just passively sit there when something was brought up that they didn't agree with. They argued. Except Uncle George never did. He never even got offended. She would have noticed if he ever did.

Once, she decided to ask Cousin Fred if Uncle George ever lost his temper at home. She said that her father was very loving, and never yelled at Roxanne, though he sometimes yelled at Fred. Fred didn't seem to think this was fair, as her little sister Roxie could get away with _much_ more than she could, if their mother didn't find out. Rose thought about this, and eventually decided that it was simply a case of a father being softer on his youngest. She simply couldn't think of another explanation, and so came to the conclusion that there wasn't one.

Actually, that became Rose's policy on the entire affair. By this point, she had been trying to understand Uncle George for a good three years, since she was eight. She decided that there were more interesting and rewarding topics to put her considerable eleven-year-old mind to, like her exciting new life at Hogwarts. This old mystery was boring now. Uncle George never fought because he had no opinions on anything, and that was why no one ever disagreed with him. And that was that. She simply had no more energy with which to think about the topic.

She developed a new hobby in the huge library she now had access to: researching the war. She loved reading about her mum and dad and uncle, and how they had found all the horcruxes (she wasn't too clear on what they were, other than they kept Voldemort alive) and then defeated the bad guy like real heroes. She researched Professor Neville and Luna and Aunt Ginny, and was enthralled by the way they had held their school and kept it from the evil Carrows. She had, of course, heard all these stories before, but the people who had told them to her (Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, Mum, and Dad) usually downplayed their part in them, so she delighted in hearing them from a third party.

Rose usually tried to avoid stories about people who had died in the war. She knew that they were all heroes, but somehow hearing about how Remus and Nymphadora Lupin died fighting together or how Severus Snape's daring spy mission led to his death unnerved her. She avoided it.

It was for this reason that Rose put off reading the list of honored dead until right before Christmas break. She nervously flipped to the back of _The Battle of Hogwarts and the Events which Lead to it_ and ran her fingers down the alphabetized list. Sirius Black, her uncle's godfather, Uncle Harry still missed him… Colin Creevey, her father had mentioned him, a Gryffindor through and through… Dobby, a free elf of which Uncle Harry spoke very highly… Albus Dumbledore, well, that one needed no explanation, everyone knew who _he_ was… The names all ran together. There were some she recognized, but most she didn't. She stopped at Teddy's parents, and at 'Mad Eye' Moody, and again at Severus Snape, remembering what they had done. She was almost at the bottom of the list when she noticed one that was impossibly familiar: Fred Weasley.

It obviously couldn't be her _Cousin_ Fred Weasley, because she was alive and well in the third year Gryffindor girls' dormitory. Logically, it must be Fred's namesake that her entire family had conveniently forgotten to mention. (She had always thought it odd that Fred had a boy's name, but had simply brushed it off as the usual silliness of her Uncle.) This required further investigation.

She stormed back to Gryffindor tower and confronted her cousin about the mystery relation. Fred stammered and looked down and generally avoided the question. She eventually dragged Rose up to her dorm and begged her not to mention it to the rest of the Weasley children. Rose grudgingly obliged, but insisted that Fred tell her who her namesake was.

Apparently Uncle George had a twin, who was very much like him. They did everything together. They built Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes from the ground up, they wreaked havoc on the school when they attended, and they fought in the war. Cousin Fred didn't know much about the circumstances of his death other than that her father was completely devastated. Her mother had told her that the Weasley house was a dark place for a long time, and nobody ever mentioned Fred for fear of upsetting George. Eventually this policy had evolved into an unwritten law, and Fred's memory was restricted to history books and the minds of those that had known him. George began to heal, but he had taken his twin's death harder than anyone else, including Grandma Molly. Everyone who knew what had happened respected the taboo on Fred.

Rose thanked Cousin Fred and left for her own dormitory. She thought about what she had learned, and the project that she had abandoned, incomplete, only the previous summer. She knew, of course, that death could affect people; Professor Neville hadn't been the same since his wife Hannah died giving birth to their second child. Rose hadn't known Hannah very well, but she could tell that Neville was distraught. Death changed people.

Of course, it was almost silly, the way the Weasleys pretended Fred didn't exist. They feared a memory for the powerful emotions it might evoke. They walked on eggshells around Uncle George, never saying anything that might offend him, because they were afraid of how he might react. Uncle George didn't react because there was nothing to react _to._ He never argued because no one ever started anything with him, and when he tried to start something, as her family was wont to do, they passed over whatever he said in a way that they certainly would not if it wasn't George. Rose wondered how George felt about that. She wondered how she had missed something that important for so long.

When Christmas break started and everyone returned home, the first thing Rose did was ask her father about Uncle Fred. His eyes got very wide, comically so, and she suppressed a giggle. Her father had always been a bit dramatic. But he didn't tell her anything she didn't already know. She would have to go straight to the source.

"Uncle George?" she asked. "Who was Uncle Fred?"

He gasped. Then he smiled. Then he told her.

* * *

Regarding Cousin Fred's female status: I found that nothing Rowling said indicated that George and Angela had a boy and a girl. While that does not mean that such information does not exist, I have chosen to take liberties. And really, isn't naming his firstborn after Fred, regardless of gender, something that George would do?


End file.
